Rate rise likely after 211K new November jobs added

And she has cited the labor market’s cumulative progress in recent years, with the unemployment rate down to 5% from 10% in 2009, and employers adding an average of more than 200,000 jobs a month in 2015.

The unemployment rate held steady at 5 percent – its lowest level in more than seven years – and it did so for good reasons.

But the labor force participation rate – a measure of the number of people who are employed or are seeking employment – remains at a 38-year low. Hiring was revised higher in October and September by a combined 35,000 jobs.

Strong hiring across the U.S. economy in November lent fresh support Friday to the Federal Reserve embarking on a long-awaited series of interest rate hikes later this month.

Fed Chair Janet L. Yellen told Congress on Thursday that she and other central bank policymakers would analyze the November jobs report “very closely” to determine if the economy is ready for a hike in the benchmark federal funds rate.

For-hire trucking gained 2,300 jobs; however, the October figure was revised to reflect a loss of 900 jobs, instead of the 400-job gain when the employment data was released November 6.

The for hire truckload second gained 400 jobs in October after a 400-job loss in September, data that is reflected of the current driver shortage.

“There is no doubt that if we had to intensify the use of our instruments to ensure that we achieve our price stability mandate, we would”, he said in a speech at the Economic Club of NY. “The job market still has a lot of steam and the Fed should be comfortable raising interest rates”.

Yellen mentioned that the economy is required to generate only under 100,000 jobs every month to maintain growth in the working age population. This is why the solid jobs report should dispel any doubts about December hike, experts believe. Many economists on the street believe that the conditions in the economy seem almost ideal for a period of small slow rate increases in the coming months by the Federal Reserve. Average hourly earnings edged higher, but at 2.3% above year-earlier levels, wage growth is still more than a full percentage point away from where it probably needs to be for the Fed to achieve its inflation target.

Employment gains in November were likely broad-based, though manufacturing and mining probably lost more jobs.

But at Knox Machinery in Franklin, business has been booming, and the company has been on a steady growth track for months, adding about 30 percent to its workforce in each of the past two years, according to President Greg Knox.